Background:
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the World. Turkey, with a prevalence of 27%, has one of the highest rates of smoking in Europe. Effects of psychosocial factors such as subjective well-being (SWB), negative affect (NA), self-esteem (SE) and religiosity have not been explored at a national level for a high prevalence, Muslim country like Turkey.

Objective:
To investigate the effects of psychosocial risk factors for smoking in Turkey from a nationally representative data set from 2008.

Methods:
A survey aimed to investigate subjective well-being, perception of health and religiosity was administered to 3002 people (mean age: 39.6 ± 14.87 years) from 26 provinces in Turkey. Half of the participants were female (50%), the majority of the sample had a middle-income (64%), and nearly all were Muslim (95.4%).

Results:
Groups’ mean SWB score was 18.6 ± 7.24 out of 35, and mean NA score was 16.2 ± 5.01 out of 30. While 35.8% were regular smokers, 4.8% of the participants were non-regular users, and 60% did not smoke. Logistic regression was utilized to test the association among NA, SBW, religiosity, SE, tolerance for uncertainty and smoking status. The model showed significant effects of NA and SWB on smoking status while religiosity, SE and tolerance for uncertainty had no effect when gender, age, income and alcohol use were controlled for (R2=0.29). Both lower SWB and higher NA increased the likelihood of being a smoker. The model results changed across age groups and gender. The effect of NA was no longer observed in males, and religiosity had a significant effect among people aged 40–54 years.

Conclusion:
The details of the model and its implications for smoking cessation will be further discussed to shed light on the nature of psychosocial risk factors on smoking and cessation.